Anchored Down

In desperation for a day of class in between Panamá and Costa Rica, we were anchored outside of Panamá today for about 18 hours. It became very obvious when the ship started to move again and I felt like my sea legs took a while to kick in. Several people asked me today what had happened outside the ship yesterday...who wouldn’t be curious about what was happening in the commotion? Some people told me about rumors they had heard, others said it looked like I was having fun. Funny how people interpret gestures and facial expressions differently. I wasn’t the only one with a bit of recent drama. My roommate has been apparently become a “random target“ for drugs. He was drug-tested yesterday and our room was searched again today. So it has been quite “exciting“ for us the past few days.

Class was a bit traumatic today as I unintentionly offended the women in my class as we were discussing stereotypes and prejudices after what I said was interpreted differently from how I meant it. This was one of the times where I feel like it’s extremely challenging for me to relate to the other members of my engineering class. We were talking about empowering women (the article was about human trafficking), and the girls mentioned that they are the minority in their Engineering courses. The activity required the men to sit on the floor and not talk as the women discussed the article. When I mentioned that I’m a minority in my Spanish major, it seemed to show them another perspective to how the situation can be exactly the opposite. Some of the discussions we have had in class have been exhausting for me. I fear sometimes that I talk too much, so I'm going to try to remain quiet and just listen next class.

Today at seminar, we spoke about a video called “The Story of Stuff.“ It discussed heavily politics and government...and that can be a daunting discussion to have with a group of 300+ students that have their own beliefs. The evening concluded with another SAS Family dinner. It was an excellent meal and we’ll be having a Formal 5-course Meal together next week! The SAS network is just an awesome group of people. I think it’s so awesome to bring people together with diverse backgrounds of all ages.

And a quick anecdote to wrap this up: I was in the library looking up things to do in Costa Rica. And someone asked me if I knew Krefeld (Germany) after looking at my t-shirt. (I was wearing my fencing club shirt). Mentioning that I lived there for 7 months, this SAS student mentioned he had spent a summer there through an exchange program in Indiana. Talk about a small world! So there is someone else who knows Krefeld as a special place in Germany!

Costa Rica in the morning!
Buenas noches,
Matt